Product Launch Countdown

Hello, Product Owners and Web Marketers!

Looking to ensure the massive success of your online launch? Well, first off, you’ll need one, two, or both of the following:

1. Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula
2. A savvy, world-class Product Launch Manager with the right training and connections

My name is Hubert Lee and I’m proud to tell you that I’m an experienced Product Launch Manager personally trained and coached by Jeff Walker. As one of the first Product Launch Managers personally trained by Jeff and as a member of Jeff’s small Platinum PLM coaching program, I have quick and direct access to Jeff. I’ve had the pleasure of working on Jeff’s amazing launches.

If you look at nothing else on this site, spend one minute with this video:

Jeff is the Product Launch Guru of “Product Launch Formula” fame and has been the brains behind the world’s most successful online product launches. If you’re not up to speed on the PLF phenomenon, take a look at the video at this link: Product Launch Formula.

Enough of the infomercial! You’re probably here looking for the famous Product Launch Countdown, so let’s get right to it.

By the way, I really don’t want to bore you with an academic-style treatise. So, think of this page as the most entertaining white paper you’ve ever seen! (OK, OK – I’ll admit to what everyone’s saying – yes, this page is LONG! But, it’s also educational and entertaining.)

With that buildup, here is the Product Launch Countdown. These are the 10 things you absolutely MUST have to ensure a massively successful online product launch.

The right product launch manager…

There are several requirements for a Product Launch Manager that you absolutely must insist on.

1. Be sure that your Product Launch Manager genuinely cares about you and your business.
2. Check that your Product Launch Manager has learned his or her craft from the best in the business.
3. Verify that your Product Launch Manager has an “in” with the top stars of the product launch world and can deliver you the benefits of being well-connected.

 
First off, make sure that your Product Launch Manager is someone that you not only get along with but that you really like and respect. Product launches are stressful enough without having to worry about the personal integrity of your Product Launch Manager. Look for a warm, sincere person that you get along with. Life’s too short to work with people you don’t like!

Secondly, there’s no reason to fool around with your product launch. A massively successful launch literally sets you up for life. Don’t settle for less than the best.

Everyone acknowledges that Jeff Walker is the center of the world when it comes to Product Launches. He literally invented the proven strategies and tactics that power the world’s product launches.

I have the honor of being a Jeff Walker-trained Product Launch Manager. I’m part of his small, hand-picked Platinum PLM coaching group. Every client product launch that I conduct has the strategy and tactics reviewed by Jeff and the Platinum PML group. Take advantage of the incredible best practices learned from years of expert product launches.

Here’s a picture of me and my Product Launch Manager trainer, coach and mentor, Jeff Walker. (I’m the one without hair!)

In addition to receiving frequent coaching and mentoring from Jeff, I’m proud to be a provider of graphic design and web design services to his organization.

For testimonials of me as a Product Launch Manager, click on these thumbnails:

.. ..

Enough about me. If you really want to know what I’m like, just give me a call. We can chat about your business and in 5 minutes, you’ll see what I’m like.

If you haven’t heard about the L.A. training event, here are a couple of quick details.

• Jeff Walker personally led 5 full days of intensive hands-on Product Launch Manager training
• Attendance was invitation-only and limited to 48 of the most savvy web marketers in the world.
• The training fee was outrageously high (and worth every penny and much more!)
• Speakers and faculty were world-class experts in product launch management and included people like Frank Kern and Eben Pagan.

Here is a video of Jeff right before flying out to the event:

 

Next, we look at having a good product.

A killer product with a magic bullet…

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. Isn’t that how the old saying goes? Well it’s still true today. Create a product that addresses your customers pains and appeals to their aspirations and you’ll have a winning product. I’ll show you how to tweak your product so that it offer the “Magic Bullet” that the world seeks.

In a very exclusive training event with Jeff Walker (the famous “L.A. Product Launch Manager Training” that you may have heard about), Jeff had has good friend Eben Pagan reflect upon what makes for a perfect product. The bottom line is that your product must meet a pressing need or appeal to an irrational desire. I’ll show you how to check for these characteristics in your product.

Here’s a video of Eben helping someone tease out what a potential customer looks for in a product:

A hungry audience that knows and trusts you…

After identifying a market segment with a ravenous need, it’s time to cultivate the audience and turn them into a loyal following. How do you do this? Ah, that’s the genius behind the Product Launch Forumla. PLF teaches us to give, give and give.

As a matter of fact, I’ll help you structure your launch so that your audience receives an amazing amount of very valuable, very real content from you during the pre-launch phase. “Shock and Awe” as Frank Kern says.

Speaking of Frank Kern, Jeff made sure that he came to our L.A. training event for Product Launch Managers by sending a helicopter for him. Don’t believe me? Take a look:

Frank went on to reveal the “secret” of how to build that level of trust with your audience that I was speaking about. Want to know what it is? Of course you do!

And the secret is…

“KINDNESS”

Yes, can you believe it? Frank Kern spent about a half hour giving us a heartfelt talk about how we need to come from a place of kindness. By treating our audience right and giving freely, we slowly earn their trust and respect. Well said, Frank! 

An incredibly compelling offer…

Imagine a  balance scale. You start off with the amount of money you are asking for your product on one side of the scale. It’s heavy so it sits way down. Your job in offer creation is to add enough value to the other side of the scale so that it starts lifting the heavy end up. You keep improving and adding to your offer until it not only evens out the cost side, but starts to really tip the balance scale over. Finally, you pile on bonuses and other value until you get that definitive ”Clank of Value” that makes the offer irresistable.

Your buyer at this point is thinking that he or she would be crazy NOT to take the offer.

Thanks to Jeff Walker and Eben Pagan for this great mental picture of irresistable offer creation.  

Here’s a little exercise to help you determine what makes a good offer. Take a look at the following 2 videos. One tries to make his offer compelling on price and capacity. The other goes the route of an added bonus (although he makes the mistake of having offer components that don’t complement each other). Let me know what you learn from watching these different approaches:

A great sense of timing and rythm…

How do you build anticipation and urgency? The key is to carefully orchestrate what your audience experiences during the pre-launch and launch period.

I’ll show you how to choice among a variety of tools and techniques to lead your list through a proven formula of timing and rythm.

Take a quick look at how Jeff explains it:

 

A compelling story and awesome copy…

Engagement of an audience doesn’t happen by accident. It is your job to create a compelling experience for your readers and viewers. This is often accomplished effectively through good story telling.

Have you heard of “The Hero’s Journey”? It’s an age-old “pattern” of story telling that you’ll recognize over and over again. It works because of the way we’re wired. Here is a humorous explanation:

And here is a video of mine that follows a similar theme of journey, obstacles and redemption.

I use humor in this video of me trying to find that perfect “thank you” gift for my coach and mentor Jeff Walker. I literally went through several states trying to get Jeff a really memorable present. If you can’t make out the captions, click on the HQ button and then the “full screen view” button next to it.

Remember, entertain and engage your audience.

Amazing pre-launch content…

An additional point I want to make concerning pre-launch content is that care attention to psychological factors and consistent quality of the user experience makes for amazing rapport with your audience.  Even “fun, throw-away elements” such as “informal” videos should be carefully crafted. Take a look at the “art” and careful messaging of this pre-launch video by Frank Kern:

 

A comprehensive launch strategy…

The undisputed best launch strategy is Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula. Simply put, if you don’t own it, buy it now. It’s not always available, so get on his list and snap it up the next chance you get.

It’s a step-by-step formula to building your audience and engaging them from list signup through the opening of your shopping cart.

Keep in mind, however, that what counts in the end are the results. Yes, it’s great to stick to a solid strategy, but revise it as necessary when you see a way to improvement.

It was Sir Winston Churchill that said: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Take a look at this video of Rich Schefren and Jeff Walker talking about how the Product Launch Formula continues to change.

I’m a proud member of Jeff Walker’s highest level coaching program and personally meet with him on a regular basis. I’ve learned that his forumula is constantly evolving because of shifting market conditions and technologies.

Here’s a good explanation of why the Product Launch Formula approach is the only sensible route to take in order to engage your market. As my fellow Product Launch Manager, Oliver Olsen explains, traditional marketing just doesn’t make that emotional connection that you need:

Tactics that are proven to work…

Your product launch is no place to trail-blaze new, untried techniques. Stick to what has been proven to work.

Whatever you do, DON’T ignore what works for other people. Seek advice from experts as to what the best practices are.

Take a look at this video from Chris Haddad (super genius and a fellow Jeff Walker trained Product Launch Manager) where he critiques and contrasts two squeeze pages. Pay attention to what works and what doesn’t and why one of these squeeze pages has such a high conversion rate.

Here are some categories and tactics that I will help you choose from and optimize specifically to your market.

Tools

• Email Lists / Sub-lists
• Blogs
• Surveys
• Special Reports
• Sales Letter
• Video
• Audio
• Webinars
• Teleseminars
• Social Media

Email Sequences

• Pre-Pre-Launch
• Pre-Launch
• JV Sequences
• Contests
• Stick Sequences
• Launch
• Post-Launch
• Re-Launch
• Continuous Launch

Mental Triggers

• The Story/Hook
• Events
• Community
• Social Proof
• Scarcity
• Authority
• Anticipation
• Common Enemy
• Proof
• Controversy
• Commitment
• Consistency
• Surprise/Novelty
• Likeability
• Credibility
• Celebrity
• Reason Why / Context / Back Story
• Competition
• Take-away Sale
• Simplicity
• Concreteness / Specificity
• Emotions
• Anchoring
• Transference

The Offer

• What They Get
• How They Get It
• Bonuses
• Price
• Guarantee
• The Story

 

Excited Joint Venture Partners…

“No man is an island” is the old saying. There is no place where this is more true than in the world of Product Launches. Having a network of joint venture partners that you can trust is worth more than anything else.

I spend a considerable amount of time and resources in maintaining my connections with the movers and shakers in the marketing world. I’m proud to call Jeff Walker my mentor and coach. I have ready access to brilliant, top caliber marketing minds and constantly tap them for help with my client projects. They are an invaluable source for help securing the right joint venture partners for each of my projects.

Take a look at this video that demonstrates the value of a close network. You’ll see Frank Kern and John Reese popping in on Tony Robbins because they were stuck on a certain matter and wanted Tony to help them brainstorm:

 

Hubert Lee

Project Launch Manager